STRINDBERG'S TRAGEDY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5381, 30 January 1929, Page 3

STRINDBERG'S TRAGEDY.

AN AUTHOR’S HOME LIFE.

“THE CONFESSIONS OF A FOOL.”

The question which is agitating the minds of all who have seen the recent London production of Strindberg’s play of sex antagonisms, “The; Father,” is: What can have been the writer’s own life and what sort of woman did he himself marry ? Strindberg has supplied the answer to that question in an autobiographical novel written in 1887 about his own first •marriage. “The, Confession of. a FWI” is one of the' grimmest and most poignant documents in literature. It lays bare with tragic intensity and awful particularity the bleeding soul of its author. The convention of fiCr tion is transparent; it does nothing to mask the actuality of the; life- rccorded. THE ETERNAL TRIANGLE. In the beginning the story moves slowly and placidly. The author was casually drawn into the family cir.de . of the Baron and speedily captivated, by the roguish golden curls and girlish willowy figure of the Baroness. Thq relationship of the husband and wife was friendly rather than, passionate. Indeed, the Baron was already ; enamoured of his cousin, and his wife turned more and more frankly to the studious librarian and writer, sapping V the defences of his honour and playing, upon the weakness of. his unwilling love for her. The issue was not long in doubt. It wad a dreary love, yet sad as it was, to the man it was the source ’of exquisite spiritual joys because of his unfaltering adoration. But the type of the woman began t« show itself: “The more humble I was, the more I knelt before her, small and miserable, the more, she loved me. She hated strength and manliness in me , to win her love I had to pr.etend to be wretched, so that she could pose as the stronger, play ‘little; mother.’ ’’ The Baroness left her husband, and her lover managed to get her; a footing on the stage, for which she * yearned. She had no, natural aptitude far the work, but by dint of his strenuous instruction, the emptying, of his genius into her, she had a short-lived success de scandale, and took upon her the scornful airs of a ’ tragedy quqen. When the nine days wonder was aver she had nothing to depend 'on, and had to turji back to him.- It remained then to put the relationship upon its usual financial basis. Whatever bloom had been upon their love; was sullied; sordidness invaded their lives.; passion, loathing, and jealousy .alternated in their hearts. THE VAMPIRE’S PROGRESS. Unable to endure any longer he went to Paris for a holiday, but jvas recalled by the announcement' that ) the Baroness was gofing to have a baby and wished to be made .an honest woman; He hurried back to Sweden, the marriage took place, and ! there was. a temporary recrudescence of bliss. It was the merest triviality which upset their happiness, a King Charles spaniel upon which the; Baroness, Invf>. ished a misplaced love. She was now ' thirty years old, the critical age, as her husband had good reason to suspect. Not' only did 'he fail to satisfy her, but she began to look abroad f° r the fulfilment of hqr appetite, and evidence was not wanting of an incipient perversion towards her own sex. Her passions were more and more unbridled, her namq was bandied about the town, she was lost to all decencies. And when he made a feeble effort to restrain her she; retorted vilely by spreading' rumours that he was insane. She had won the game. And as she saw me go down before / my enemies she assumed the role of the .tender mother weeping over the; prodigal son. Amiable to- aU the world, except to me, she drew all friends over to her sidle, false ones and true ones alike. Isolated, in the /“power, of a vampire, I -abandoned, all attempt at defence. Could I raise my hand against the mother of my children, the woman whom. I loved ? A FOOL’S PARADISE. The c ; up of sorrow was not yet full. There was, no pretence of wifehood save When, strangers were present. She attempted to get rid of him by poison, that she might have her freedom, cash his life insurance, and receive the pension due to the widow of a famous writer. And by her licentious life she insinuated the appalling doubt of the legitimacy, of ; his children. k When it seemed that he would ho longer consent to be her lap-dog, a toy to play with, she had recourse to the age-old wiles of women. Sl»e set herself to win him bafck to worshipping love, and, constant by nature, wrapped up in his family, and -convinced irrevocably of the vital unity of the home, he Was an easy iconquest. For six months he lived in a fool’s paradise ; “spring h.ad returned in the autumn of their lives.” Whan , he was. once more utterly: subjugated f she relapsed into her former indifference and vicjoushess. Nothing remained but to make the clean break. > that was long, overdue;. She had dishonoured four people, her three children of doubtful paternity and her husband whom her infidelities had made a laughing stjock. Divorce was the only remedy. MISOGYNY’S HANDBOOK. . SUch is “ The- Confession of Fool,” The reader -will find in it elements of the physiology of love, some light on the pathology of the sQul, or even a Strange fragment of the philosophy of crime. The author hl.mse.lf was appalled by what he had done. “This is a book,” he saysi, “and I regret that I ever wrote it.”, The reason he gave heeds no e Labor at ion—“l had to wasji my corpse beforet it wag laid in its coffin.” The genets of Strind- | berg’s self-revelation, his merciless of one wot nan, -.and the specious appearance off logic: which extends that into a generalis ation of misogyny, make it also a damgerous book, unless due allpwanice Lte made for the inevitable distortion of his soul during that loiflg disease, hi®